Saturday, 22 December 2012

20 Best Albums of 2012: #18

18. Taylor Swift, Red

There’s no denying
that Red is an at-times ungainly mix of styles and genres; without this format,
though, we might not have gotten the shrewd observations of “The Lucky One” or
the soaring “State of Grace”.
Swift is a talented songwriter, evident both in tossed-off single lines (“We’re
happy, free, confused, and lonely at the same time,” from “22”) and in full
song form (“Sad Beautiful Tragic”, "All Too Well"). Regardless of how
awkward Red may feel, it makes up for it with the remarkably consistent quality
of its sixteen songs. Anyone expecting Red to be an album’s worth of shallow
jabs at former boyfriends might just be surprised.